Surveillance and Control
1:Reichstag 2:Welcome to New York 3:Remote Frisking 4:In Order Not to be Here 5:Now let us praise American Leftists 6:Safe Distance 7:Videolabyrinth
1:REICHSTAG
Dmitry Vilensky, Russia, 2003, 6', mini dv
The film was taken in the Reichstag's Dome - one of the main sights of Berlin, a place where shooting photos and video is officially allowed. Vilensky invited Frau Grunewald to visit this place. She is widely known in Berlin, due to her strange appearance and because she constantly works in the underground where she sells passengers her texts and asks for a donation. He asked her to walk with him under the dome, a symbol of German democracy, and explain what she thinks about power. After 2 minutes and 50 seconds they were stopped by security guards and forced to quit shooting and leave the building.
2:WELCOME TO NEW YORK
Norman Cowie, USA, 2002, 26'
Welcome to New York is an experimental documentary on the influence of a conservative think tank, the Manhattan Institute, on New York during the 1990s, and the response of citizens to the corporate-friendly policies of the Giuliani administration. It also offers a glimpse at the resurgent conservatism of the post 9/11 era in the U.S. With text, music, found footage and interviews, the tape is an irreverent essay on a neoliberal vision of urban life that has been marketed throughout the world.
3:REMOTE FRISKING
Andy Weir, UK, 2003, 7', mini dv
Border crossings. The movement of a body through technologies of biopolitical administration. Breath and flesh that must prove its innocence at every turn / the decoration of transitional architecture/ a stopped heart.
4:IN ORDER NOT TO BE HERE
Deborah Stratman, USA, 2002, 33', 16 mm
Images of suburban surveillance and violence that push up against the limits of the real.
An uncompromising look at the ways privacy, safety, convenience and surveillance determine our environment. Shot entirely at night, the film confronts the hermetic nature of white-collar communities, dissecting the fear behind contemporary suburban design. By examining evacuated suburban and corporate landscapes, the film reveals a peculiarly 21st century hollowness; an emptiness born of our collective faith in safety and technology. This is a new genre of horror movie, attempting suburban locations as states of mind.
5: NOW LET US PRAISE AMERICAN LEFTISTS
Paul Chan, USA, 2000, 2:30'
Now Let Us Praise American Leftists is an experimental video animation
that seeks to eulogize and ridicule the American leftist movement of the
past century. Foregrounding the exclusionary nature of American leftist
politics, and its persistent refusal to allow more diversity in terms of
race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation to enter into the larger political
daialogue, the video presents representations of American leftists as they
are: men with mustaches, created using FACES, a computer application used by North American law enforcement agencies to create composite pictures of criminals and suspects for wanted posters.
6: SAFE DISTANCE
US AIR Force/ kuda.org, New Media Center, Novi Sad, 21'
Safe Distance is a video that was recorded during nato air strikes
against former Yugoslavia. The videotape shows the head up display of the US AIR
Force plane. There were 4 airplanes flying from a NATO-base in Italy
to a destination in Yugoslavia. Their mission objective was to bomb several
targets in the area around the city of Novi Sad. On the way back, after the
mission was completed, the plane was shot. This tape (sony video 8) was found
near the crashed plane in Fruska Gora mountain in Srem region. It shows
the head up display with basic graphical interface and voice communication
between pilots.
7: VIDEOLABYRINTH
Toni Serra, Spain and Morocco, 1999, 12', beta sp
"Pirate Utopias and European Renegade Archives" presents a silent report on CCTVs -security cameras. A catalogue of tragedies and ideas for the future.
